Railroad-tie



UNiTEE STATES ATEN'i FFiCEo CHARLES \V. YOST, OF MIDDLETOW'N,PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILROAD-Tl E.

JPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 370,226, datedSeptember 20, 1887.

Application filed May 12, 1887. Serial No. 238,012. (No model.)

i" 0 aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GrmnLEs WEsLEY Yosr, of Middletown, in the county ofDauphin and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and ImprovedRailroad-Tie, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription.

My invention relates to railway-ties, and has for its object to providean inexpensive, effective, and durable metallic railwaytie which willafford ample support to the trackrails, and may be easily and quicklylaid with the rails to form a substantial roadbed for railways.

The invention consists in certain novel featurcs of construction of therailway-ties and their combination with the rails, all as hereinafterdescribed and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part ofthis specification, in which similar letters of reference indicatecorresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure l is a vertical sectional elevation longitudinally through myimproved railroadtie, which is broken away at its central part, andatransverse section ofthe track-rails which are held to the tie, thesection being taken on the line x 00 of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a plan view ofthe tie and rails. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the end of the main plate orbar of the tie, which lies beneath the rail chair or shoe; and Fig. 4 isa side view with the tie in a transverse section on the line 3/ y, Fig.2.

The railroad-tie consists of a bed or base plate, A, of proper length tosuit the gage of the railway-track, and two chairs or shoes, 13 B, oneheld near each end of the bed-plate A and adapted to lock the rails G Oto the tie,

as presently explained.

The metal of the bed-plate A is slit and pressed up to form two tongues,D D, one near each end of the plate, the tongue D being adapted to lockagainst and over the outer base-flange, c, of the left-hand rail 0, andthe tongue D adapted for locking over the inner base-flange, e, of theright-hand rail. -Near these tongues D D the bed-plate is punched orpressed to form slots E, and preferably a pin or bolt hole, F, also, andat some distance from the tongues D D the bed-plate is punched out toform two pairs of L-shaped slots, G G, one pair at the end of the platenear the righthand rail 0 and the other inside the lefthand rail 0, andnear the middle of the plate, as shown in Fig. 2 or" the drawings.

The chairs or shoes B are each made of a v formed with slots I, throughwhich the bedplate tongues D D pass to overlook the railfianges. Thechairs Bare also slit and punched or pressed to form tongues J J, onetongue in each chair, and these tongues are adapted to lock,respectively, against and over the inside flange, c", of the left-handrail and the outside flange, c, of the right-hand rail. The chairs arealso slit and pressed to form apair of pendent tongues, K K, which areadapted to lock into the slots G at each end of the bedplate. Holes inthe chairs allow bolts or pins M to be passed through the chairs intothe holes F of the bed-plate.

In laying the ties and securing the rails of the track, the bed-plate A,with the chairs B B on it, will be slipped under the rails, and therails will rest on the chairs when the latter are positioned to allowthe rail-flanges to clear the tongues D D J J of the chairs, thechairslots I allowing this adjustment of the chairs on the bed-plate,and when the chairs are pressed up snugly to the rails, by lifting orprying up the bed-plate, the bedplate will be driven endwise toward theright hand, which will cause its tongues D D to engage the rail-flangesc c, and also cause the chair-flanges J J to engage the rail-flanges cc, and will also cause the chair-tongues K, which had been enteredthrough the broad parts of the slots G, to enter the narrow parts ofsaid slots and lock firmly beneath the bedplate. At this time thetongues H of the chairs will stand nearly in line with the bedplateslots E, and a few blows on the right hand ends of the chairs oppositethe tongues will bring the tongues to register with the slots E, intowhich they fall or spring by the elasticity of the chairs, and when thebolts or pins M are passed through the chairs and the bed-plate, andheld either by nuts or cotterpins the attachment of the rails and tieswill be complete. To remove the rails, it is only necessary to removethe bolts M, when they are used, and wedge up the ends of the chairsuntil their tongues H are lifted from the bedplate slots E, and a fewblows of a hammer on the left-hand end of the bed-plate will loosen theentire tie from both rails, as will readily be understood.

It is not necessary that the bolt M be used with the lock of the chairsat H with the bedplate slots I, or the bolts may be used without thelock H I; but the use of both the lock and bolt is at present preferred.1

It is obvious that when these ties are used the rails cannot spread andcause derailment of the cars, and the chairs give strength to the tieand relieve the bed-plate of all direct wear of the rails, thusrequiring renewal of the chairs only after long use of the track, andshould the rails be broken by frost or otherwise the broken pieces willbe held to place securely by the tongues, and thus prevent seriousaccidents.

Both the bed-plates and chairs may be finished complete by stamping orpressing them out when red-hot, just as they leave the plating-rollers,and whereby they may be produced very cheaply, and the fiber or grain ofthe metal will not be broken or weakened, as would be the case were thesteel plates stamped or pressed out when cold.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A railroad-tie comprising a bed-plate, A, provided at each end withan upturned tongue, as D, and slots G, in combination with chairplatesB, formed with a slot, I, a tongue, as J, and pendent locking-tongues K,and a device locking the chairs to the bed-plate, substantially asdescribed, for the purposes set forth.

2. A railroad-tie comprising a bed-plate, A, provided at each end withan upturned tongue, as D, and slots G and E, in combination withchair-plates formed with a slot, I, a tongue, as J, and pendentlocking-tongues K, and a looking device for the chairs and bed-plate,com- 4.. The combination, with railroad-rails G O, of ties formed of abed-plate, A, provided with upturned tongues D D and slots G, and

chair-plates formed with slots 1, and .tongues J J, and pendentlocking-tongues K, and a locking device holding the chairs to thebedplate, said tongues D D J J engaging the base-flanges of the rails,substantially as described, for the purposes set forth.

CHARLES W. YOST.

\Vitnesses:

THOS. M. YOST, J os. FoIN.

